Colon cancer nationally represents a significant cause of morbidity and mortality, and fruit and vegetable consumption has generally been identified as protective against colon carcinogenesis across both observational and experimental studies. New frontiers in scientific research related to the protective effects of various flavonoid phytochemicals on colon carcinogenesis will permit refinement and considerable expansion of our current knowledge of the generally health protective effects of fruit and vegetable consumption, both with respect to cancer prevention, as well as other chronic diseases. Using epidemiologic research methods to quantify risk estimates, the proposed dissertation research will examine the association between colon cancer and fruit/vegetable/phytochemical intake, the association between colon cancer and metabolic gene polymorphisms related to intake of the specific flavonoid quercetin, and the potential for gene-phytochemical interactions to alter the risk of colon cancer. This research will use previously collected baseline data from a large population-based epidemiologic case-control study of colon cancer in African Americans and Caucasians from North Carolina conducted from 1996 to 2000. [unreadable] [unreadable]